ico A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 



with the force and promptitude proper to such. Let us 

 hope that the scramble of democracy will give us something 

 as good ; anything of so classic dignity we shall not look to 

 see again. 



Josiah Quincy was no seeker of office ; from first to last 

 he and it were drawn together by the mutual attraction of 

 need and fitness, and it clung to him as most men cling to 

 it. The people often make blunders in their choice ; they 

 are apt to mistake presence of speech for presence of mind ; 

 they love so to help a man rise from the ranks, that they 

 will spoil a good demagogue to make a bad general ; a great 

 many faults may be laid at their door, but they are not fairly 

 to be charged with fickleness. They are constant to who 

 ever is constant to his real self, to the best manhood that is 

 in him, and not to the mere selfishness, the antica lupa so 

 cunning to hide herself in the sheep s fleece even from 

 ourselves. It is true, the contemporary world is apt to be 

 the gull of brilliant parts, and the maker of a lucky poem 

 or picture or statue, the winner of a lucky battle, gets 

 perhaps more than is due to the solid result of his triumph. 

 It is time that fit honour should be paid also to him who 

 shows a genius for public usefulness, for the achievement 

 of character, who shapes his life to a certain classic pro 

 portion, and comes off conqueror on those inward fields 

 where something more than mere talent is demanded for 

 victory. The memory of such men should be cherished as 

 the most precious inheritance which one generation can 

 bequeath to the next. However it might be with public 

 favour, public respect followed Mr. Quincy unwaveringly 

 for seventy years, and it was because he had never for 

 feited his own. In this, it appears to us, lies the lesson of 

 his life, and his claim upon our grateful recollection. It is 

 this which makes him an example, while the careers of so 

 many of our prominent men are only useful for warning. 

 As regards history, his greatness was narrowly provincial ; 

 but if the measure of deeds be the spirit in which they are 

 done, that fidelity to instant duty, which, according to 

 Herbert, makes an action fine, then his length of years 



